The Scourge of the Internet: Political Panhandlers

Lloyd Lofthouse

This is a rant about political panhandlers sending out emails asking for donations.

When I was still a child, I remember my dad’s reason for not voting. He said, “All politicians are liars and crooks and can’t be trusted.”

But as soon as I was old enough, I voted anyway. Because even if all politicians are liars and crooks, some are more dangerous than others. So, unlike my parents, I’ve been voting for decades.

I do not disagree with my dad that all elected politicians are liars, but I think a glass half-full is better than one with no bottom that can’t hold water. That’s why I fact check and spend valuable time learning about who I end up voting for.  I don’t want to vote for anyone that’s a bottomless glass.

Still, I want the email political panhandlers to stop begging for money that would bankrupt me and make me homeless if I only donated one dollar for each request (more on that later).

I wanted to know how fast they’d drive me into bankruptcy and homelessness, so I set aside one week to track these tramps while also labeling their pauper producing emails as SPAM, hoping to stop the Biblical flood clotting my incoming emails.

Traitor Trump is clearly the King of Political Panhandlers

So. starting October 20, for seven days, I counted 217 emails begging me to donate money to politicians running for office, many of them from other states. As we near the official voting day for the 2022 midterms, that daily average of 31 emails asking me to go broke, has soared into the 40s.  It doesn’t matter how many times I label them as SPAM, they won’t stop begging.

During those 7 days, the endless gush of political panhandlers asked for $3 to $500 dollar donations with one button to be used for any amount.  There was one outlier that only asked for $20.22, and that one showed up two days in a row, since this year is 2022.

If all I did was donate a dollar to each one if those political panhandlers, that would cost more than $30 a day, $210 a week, or about $1,000 a month, and all of those mendicants were asking for a lot more than one dollar.

It’s enough that we’re still struggling to survive during the COVID pandemic, but why do we have to put up with these political panhandlers that clearly don’t give a shit about our ability to eat and pay rent?

Lloyd Lofthouse is a former US Marine and combat vet, who went to college with help from the GI Bill, and then taught in the public schools for thirty years. His latest novel is The Patriot Oath.

He fought for his country. Now he’s home and engaged in the deadliest of battles. If you like war-hardened heroes, action-packed fight scenes, and powerful political agendas, then you’ll love Lloyd Lofthouse’s gripping adventure.

Responses to “The Scourge of the Internet: Political Panhandlers”

  1. sgtsabai Avatar
    sgtsabai

    I too have been flooded by money wants. All Democrat. I seldom see anything from the traitor party, usually somebody I know pranked me. Anything faintly representing the traitor party is immediately in junk. I don’t have the spare money to give to even those that might be deserving. I believe I sent 10 USD to Bernie Sanders, once. Except for those known progressives most fund raisers email site is deleted. The whole election cycle is a pain in the butt.

    Reply
    1. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
      Lloyd Lofthouse

      Too bad there isn’t an app that would allow the victims of junk mail to automatically reverse SPAM that email address with endless junk mail of our choice. Maybe political jokes rom the Laugh Factory.

      Reply
  2. Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt Avatar
    Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

    They’re good copywriters, infusing their requests with more and more pathos.

    I’m not contributing to things I don’t know something about, however important they MIGHT be – because I know that would only increase the flow.

    I’m sure some of these are legitimate, but have this funny feeling that the people with the BIG money are calling all the shots – because they can afford to dump a million dollars into the cost for an ad, if they want a particular candidate to win. Democrats and the others.

    All they’re doing is wasting my time – even unsubscribing isn’t worth the effort, nor is labeling them all as spam and/or dragging them to the trash.

    Yes, there are many critical campaigns. But the people involved do not include me – and I don’t wish to become one.

    PS The dark green background made this almost illegible on my monitor.

    Reply
    1. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
      Lloyd Lofthouse

      I’ll see if I can change that background but keep that WordPress theme. Thanks for mentioning it.

      Reply
      1. Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt Avatar
        Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

        Thanks – it may just be me and the desktop, but I persisted because you usually have good content; on someone else’s post I would have given up almost immediately – my problem, not yours.

      2. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
        Lloyd Lofthouse

        I vaguely remember someone else mentioned the dark green background made it difficult to read the text. At the time, I didn’t have my new iMac desktop yet. Once I did, I quickly learned how a dark background can make it more difficult to read text since iMacs have a color change around dusk that changes all the colors to make them darker. The background becomes very dark and all the print changes from white to darker, muted colors. A darker background with darker print doesn’t work all that great. I don’t like that and have turned that function off a number of timed, but the iMac system keeps turning it back on. Irritating!

  3. Lloyd Lofthouse Avatar
    Lloyd Lofthouse

    Reblogged this on The Soulful Veteran's Blog.

    Reply

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